Cook leads Franklin County by Shelby Valley

HIGHLAND HEIGHTS — Franklin County has four 1,000-point career scorers in its lineup, so it’s rare when the Flyers go starving for offense.

So it didn’t matter that Princess Stewart, Franklin County’s top scorer this season, went 0-for-9 from the field and had only 2 points (on 2 free throws in the final minutes) in the first round of the St. Elizabeth HealthCare/KHSAA Sweet Sixteen Wednesday afternoon.

Rebecca Cook stepped up to lead the Flyers with 19 points and Dasia Kilbroune added 10 in a 47-39 victory over Shelby Valley in BB&T Arena.

It was Franklin County’s first victory in the Sweet Sixteen since 1980.

“When you haven’t won a state tournament game in 36 years, I guess it’s supposed to be hard,” Coach Joey Thacker said. “We just never could turn them over and get points, so we had to grind it out in the halfcourt.”

Stewart, Cook, Kilbourne and Malaka Frank are all 1,000-point performers, so Thacker is confident his team can always generate offense.

“(Stewart) didn’t have her best day, but we’re a team, and everybody knows somebody else will step up,” he said.

ABOUT MIKE FIELDS

After working as a sports writer for 41 years, I needed a break from the daily demands and deadlines of the newspaper business. So last June I retired from the Lexington Herald-Leader after covering approximately 4,000 high school sports events in my career. Now, eight months later, I’m rested and ready for a part-time return to the game. To reintroduce myself: I was born in Pikeville, grew up in Bardstown, graduated from the University of Kentucky, worked at newspapers in Eustis, Fla., Lake City, Fla., Henderson, Ky., and Evansville, Ind., before coming to Lexington in 1980. Email me at mfields@khsaa.org

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